Agenda item

That the capital monitoring report to the end of September 2020 be noted.

The Interim Service Lead Finance introduced a report that provided a summary of the spend against capital budgets for the 2020/21 financial year to the end of the September 2020.

The capital budget for 2020/21 was £181m of which £39m had been spent to the end of the 2^nd Quarter.  Spend was usually lower in the first half of the year, but this figure was significantly lower than the previous year at which point £94m had been spent.  The current Covid-19 restrictions had impacted on the programme, however, it was currently projected that £130m, or 71%, of the revised budget would be spent by the end of the year.  The main areas of expenditure so far in the year included £4m drawdown by James Elliman Homes to purchase properties for use as temporary accommodation and £18m on the new hotel development on the Old Library site.

Despite the disruption due to Covid-19 restrictions, Lead Members welcomed the progress made on a number of schemes such as the newly built social housing on Wentworth Avenue that had recently been completed and the new Chalvey Community Centre that was nearing completion.  Lead Members would work with Officers to try to maintain progress on the capital schemes in their portfolios to seek to deliver as much of the programme as possible.

Speaking under Rule 30, Councillor Strutton asked whether there was a cost to the Council of borrowing money for schemes which had not progressed as quickly as planned.  The Director of Finance & Resources responded that the Council only borrowed when funding needed to be released so there were no increased interest costs for this reason.

At the conclusion of the discussion the report was noted.

Resolved –  That the capital monitoring report to the end of September 2020 be noted.